Hana grabbed him by the sleeve so hard that Deon actually felt the pull against his shoulders.

"Are you insane?"

Deon blinked, glancing back. "I mean, shouldn’t you be used to this?"

"No, seriously—are you insane?!" Hana’s voice cracked halfway through the sentence. "You can barely stand!"

Deon clicked his tongue, trying to pull his arm free, but Hana didn’t let go. If anything, her grip tightened even more. Her eyes were red, not fully crying, but close enough that it gave him second thoughts.

Even the chat, which had been exploding a second ago, seemed to blur at the edge of his vision.

"Ryker just—"

Hana swallowed hard and forced herself to continue. "Ryker just died. Nami is injured. Everyone is barely holding on, and you’re over here making some stupid bet like this is another one of your streams?"

"Stupid bet?" he repeated lightly. "You know I make bets I can always win—"

"Stop joking!"

The shout came out louder than either of them expected. Hana flinched at her own voice, but she didn’t back down. Her fingers were still holding tightly onto his shoulders as green light wrapped around.

"I hated that part..."

"What?"

"When I used to watch your streams. I always hated that part about you."

Hana’s eyes dropped to the ground, like she was ashamed of saying it but couldn’t stop anymore. "You would always do those ridiculous challenges. Sneaking into abandoned places. Eating stupid things just because chat dared you to. Running around in the cold until your hands were shaking."

Her fingers tightened again. "And even when you got hurt, you’d just laugh it off and keep going."

"...Why do all of this?"

Something in her expression made it hard for him to look at her directly. So, naturally, Deon looked away first.

"Tch..." he muttered. "You sure remember a lot for a quiet lurker."

"Deon."

He sighed, dragging one hand through his hair before immediately regretting it when pain sparked down his shoulder.

Deon realized that things had changed. Hana looked so angry, so scared. And worse...she looked like she cared.

"Then why did you keep watching me?"

"..."

Hana turned slowly before finally meeting his eyes. She saw how scared he was as well, but behind his expression, something hid. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

A need for validation? The thrill of the chase? Or something else?

"If you hated that part so much," he asked, voice quiet, "then why did you keep watching?"

For a second, Deon thought she wouldn’t answer. Then her grip on his shoulder loosened, not because she had given up, but because she knew whatever she said would disappear back into the wind.

But still she said it anyway.

"...Because I always had a phone in my hand."

Deon blinked. "What?"

"When you did those stupid challenges," Hana swallowed. "I always had the nearest emergency service already dialed, just hoping I won’t need to call them..."

Hana’s eyes dropped to the ground, embarrassed. "I’d check the area if I could figure out where you were. Police, fire department, ambulance, whatever made the most sense."

"Call it weird, maybe even obsessive..." A tiny laugh escaped that didn’t fit her at all. "But I kept my thumb over the button anyway."

Deon was taken aback. He didn’t even have a retort to that.

How could a complete stranger care to such an extent? Maybe it was just who Hana was, but some part of him couldn’t accept that explanation.

She had to have some kind of ulterior motive...maybe she wanted to play hero. Maybe helping people was just another way to feel better about herself.

"Tch..." Deon looked away first. "Well, I made the deal because it was necessary."

"Necessary?"

"Yeah, don’t think about it too hard." A faint smile started to form on his face. "Streaming is the only thing I can rely on. That’s all."

He turned toward the Brute Crawler again, flexing his fingers to check how much movement he had left. When he was satisfied, Deon bent his knees once, then glanced back at her one final time.

"So let this streamer handle it, alright?"

Hana didn’t know what to say to that. Maybe there was nothing she could say. So instead, she forced out the only thing she could.

"Don’t make me call the ambulance, okay?"

The smile on his face turned into a full-on grin. He reached out before flicking her forehead.

"Ow!"

"You’re the ambulance, silly girl."

"Now," he turned back to face the Brute Crawler. "Let’s give this all I’ve got."

Deon sprinted toward the monster, [Blade] in hand as green light suddenly started to wrap around him. He suddenly felt his body able to move better, his legs able to go further.

[Physical Boost Minor], huh? That girl really wasn’t joking...

Ahead, the Brute Crawler dragged one massive claw through the ground before slamming down, trying to catch Vivian.

She slipped past another attack, her clone moved from the opposite side at the same time, striking at the invisible barrier.

Clang!

"Vivian!" Deon shouted. "You can’t damage it!"

"I noticed!"

"No, I mean you really can’t damage it!" Deon slid beneath one of the Brute Crawler’s sweeping legs, shoulder nearly clipping against its jagged armor. "No matter how hard you try, that barrier isn’t going down from the outside!"

"Tch..." she clicked her tongue. "Then what do you want me to do?!"

"Distract it for me!" he yelled. "Make it turn! Make it angry! Make it chase the wrong target! I don’t care how you do it, I need a good angle!"

She nodded, both Vivians grouping up before darting in opposite directions at once.

One ran left, daggers scraping along the barrier to draw the Brute Crawler’s attention. The other vaulted over a broken bench and slashed toward the glowing crack near its rear armor.

Its body twisted after the nearest Vivian, the crystal along its back flaring brighter as it let out a mini-beam that was less hot but just as destructive.

Deon jumped onto a nearby tree branch, inspecting the situation.

One attack. If I hit the crystal and missed its head, I lose. And I’m not sure if I can just leave the crystal, especially when we had to painstakingly claim the Zone just to weaken it.

There’s no other option but to hit both at once. The problem was...

The monster was too fast. Even if there were two Vivians distracting it, the Crawler was starting to catch up in pace.

Deon reached in his back pocket and pulled out the all too familiar Card. It bled a dim blue, the sign of a Card being consumable, and the first Donation he’d ever been given.

[Lightning Bolt]

It was the perfect attack—

And the only reason he made the bet to begin with.